Hands-on with the Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo

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In anticipation of the November launch of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the Nintendo eShop is going to offer up a demo. You’ll be able to grab codes from participating malls, movie theaters, and game shops starting November 7th. We’ve had some time recently to give the demo a run through, and if you’re in any way interested in this game you’re going to want to track down one of these codes.

Your Alpha/Omega demo experience starts right around 35 Pokemon levels into the game, when your first pick is reaching that third evolution and is just about ready for Mega-Evolution. You get a taste of the familiar battle system as your Pokemon evolves, and then you’re rather abruptly sent out of the game. Don’t worry, the demo hasn’t ended already. For some reason the demo is broken up into days, with each day offering a little more of the map to explore and a few more people to interact with.

You’re never in the game long enough to need things like a healing center, but each time you complete a day you’re given something that can be transferred to the full game on release. Sometimes that thing is a Pokemon, while other times you get Pokeballs and healing equipment. Basically, by the time you’ve completed the demo you should have plenty of goodies to help you out in the full version.

As you can see from our video, not a ton has changed gameplay and animation-wise. This is all about the Alpha/Omega story and completing the slow upgrade to Pokemon Link that allows users all over the world to interact and share with one another. It’s a great experience, just like the last version of the game, but if this demo is any indicator you shouldn’t expect any earth shattering differences.

Nintendo has broken down on their blog exactly how to get your hands on one of these codes, so be sure to check it out for yourself.